Rand Paul aide slammed after report

Neoconservatives and liberals alike on Tuesday blasted a key aide to Sen. Rand Paul amid a new report that he has a history of making highly inflammatory statements.

According to a story in the Washington Free Beacon, Jack Hunter — who co-authored a book with the Kentucky Republican and serves in his office — worked as a radio personality in South Carolina under the name “Southern Avenger.” In that capacity, the story said, he bashed subjects including President Abraham Lincoln and Spanish-speaking immigrants and advocated secession.

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“’Although Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth’s heart was in the right place, the Southern Avenger does regret that Lincoln’s murder automatically turned him into a martyr,’ he said in 2004,” the article states. “He later wrote that he “raise[s] a personal toast every May 10 to celebrate John Wilkes Booth’s birthday.”

He walked back many of the more controversial statements with the Free Beacon, the story said, although noted that he didn’t rule out support for secession. The publication noted that Hunter also once chaired the League of the South, which “advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union” and calls for a separate republic.

“Years ago, I was a radio host whose job was to provoke and inflame,” Hunter said in a statement. “I abhor racism and I have never advocated anything other than equal protection under the law for all people.”

Moira Bagley, a spokeswoman for Paul, added in a statement that “Our office policy is that all employees treat individuals with the equal protection of the law. We find no evidence that this policy has been violated by any employee.”

Hunter and Paul’s office did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment.

The story drew attention from the polar opposite sides of the political spectrum.

“Co-Author of Rand Paul’s Book Celebrated the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln,” a headline in the conservative Weekly Standard blared.

The Weekly Standard also seized on a section of the article highlighting past statements from Hunter concerning his boss.

“Perhaps the most damning part of this story for Rand Paul is Hunter’s claim that the senator is simply pretending to be more moderate than his father,” the publication wrote, nodding to another comment in which Hunter said Paul “is willing to play the game” on foreign policy in order to seem more mainstream than former Rep. Ron Paul, who preached non-interventionist foreign policy.

The liberal Salon.com went with a headline reading, “Rand Paul’s team has another white supremacist.”

“It’d be bad for any politician, but Rand Paul has tried to build a brand that sets him apart from the rest of the GOP and to make himself more appealing to non-typical Republican voters, like minorities, so the damage could be especially severe,” the publication wrote.

On Twitter, too, commentators from both the left and the right seized onto the story.